The Other Brain
by mantheharpies
Summary: Danny finds a super-book. It tells him how to defeat any enemy, pass any test, befriend any popular girl... but as always, victory comes with a catch.


If you're reading this, I'm guessing I succesfully got out of the... nevermind. Not yet. That also means I probably didn't get rid of the book as I had intended to, which is why you're reading this note. I just want to warn you, if you ever come across this book, _The _Book, to not give into it. You'll touch the ratty, torn cover and feel thousand's of year's knowledge course through you. Their memories and yours will become meshed, you won't be able to tell the difference anymore. Did you write the Declaration of Independence, or was it them? Was it you who conquered Greece, built Rome, or was it them? Was it you who conducted the largest genocide known in human history... or not? It will drive you insane, but you'll love it. You could sit there, with your hand touching the cover for hours if you could... but I warn you not to.

I'm assuming you'll read this note, then look over at the book sitting beside you and dismiss everything I just said. That's fine. I kind of feel jealous of you right now. I never had anyone write warning notes for me, and now I'm scarred for _life_. That's saying a lot, considering who I am. Anyway, enough pity for me.

You're probably thinking, "Why should I listen to _you _of all people? I have the entire universe sitting right beside me, at my disposale, and you're telling me not to. Hah, that's funny!"

I understand, truly, I do. Let me start from the beginning, maybe that will convince you. It was like every other day... wait, you don't know who I am, do you? My name is Danny Fenton aka Danny Phantom. I don't know when you found this, or when, so if you're living in the, ehm, future, you could always just search me up. If you do and I have my own wikipedia page, holy crap, that's awesome! Anyway, I'll make things easy for you. I'm half-ghost. I fight the spirits of the dead on a daily basis. The end. Alright, so where was I? Oh yeah, like every other day.

I was flying towards school, late, as usual. Then my ghost sense went off and I had to stop abruptly to fight some rude ghost. Too bad it wasn't the box ghost though. I mean, he's not a sight for sore eyes, but even he's better than _Vlad_. He was flying over the school, glaring at me like _I _was the nuissance! Pfft, yeah Vlad. He was carying something under his arm, cradling it protectively. I conducted that probably wasn't a good sign, and flew closer to check out what he was up to and even exchange some witty banter.

"Daniel," he sneered, slowing to a stop. "Late to school? Why am I not surprised."

"Shut it, Vlad. You of all people shouldn't talk, seeing as you and your other cronies are why I'm always late anyway."

"Yes, unfortunatley, I don't have time for witty banter today. Nice seeing you, Daniel. Tell your mom I say hi."

Before he could fly off, I threw a warning shot his way. Flying in closer so we were face to face, I gave him my best glare.

"I don't think so, Vlad. What's that?"

I looked down at the bundle of brown he was carrying, and he followed my gaze. I guess he didn't like it, cause he tightened his grip on it.

"None of your business. Now get out of my way before I blast you into oblivion."

"Awh, c'mon, you know that doesn't do anything but feed my curiosity! Let me see it, Vladdy."

"You know, curiosity did kill the _cat_."

On the last word, he shot a pink ball of ectoplasm at me. It caught me by surprise and hit me in the shoulder, throwing me off balance slightly. I wasn't expecting him to try and kill me so soon, usually he'd get me nice and pissed. Does no one appretiate verbal abuse anymore? That book probably meant a lot to him, I deducted. He doesn't want me getting my hands on it. I didn't understand _why _though, it was just a book.

"Two words: Anger management!"

I flew down, and then dived back up when I was under him. Fist raised and glowing green with energy, I was inches away from delivering an upercut to the bastard's chin when he caught my fist with his one free had, and then flinged me downwards towards the pavement.

I fell so fast I barely had time to catch myself. That gave him enough time to try and fly off. Key Word: Try. See, I may not be known for my strength or cunning, but if there's one thing I'm good at, that's speed. Late nights spent speeding after mischiveous ghosts and flying around for the heck of it pay off at times like this.

My hair whipped around my face so fast it almost hurt, but I was blocking his path in less than a minute.

"Bit slow there, aren't ya, Vladdy?"

He snarled at my new favorite nick-name for him. I got it from my dad, isn't he just the greatest? I considered calling him V-man for a second, but that would be pushing my luck. I noticed how his hands would tighten into fists whenever my dad called him that.

"You're lucky I'm in a good enough mood to put up with your stupidity today, Daniel. Now I warn you one final time. Move."

"Make me," I said with a smirk.

Shooting another blast at me, I dodged to the left as quick as I could. That was just a distraction, though. Anticipating the move, he flew in and punched me in the stomach. I doubled over with the shear _force _he had used. It felt like my internal organs had been compressed. While I cradled my stomach, he took my hair with one hand and crashed my face against his knee.

"Is that persuasive enough, boy?"

"No, actually." I rose to look him in the eyes, wiping a drop of blood from my nose with the back of my hand. Showing weakness in front of this man was like begging to be eaten. "All you did was piss me off."

Charging at him with my fist raised in front of me, I went intangible at the last second and went through him. He's not the only one good at tricks. Ending up behind him, I charged both fists and hit him square in the back.

He was propelled forward a few feet, but it was the equivalent of being hit by a really hot, really powerful gust of wind. Useless.

I noticed we were directly in front of the school now. I was afraid someone would notice and start some commotion.

"Thanks, Daniel." said Vlad, turning to me. "I'll make sure to commend you for your stupidity when I'm ruling the world."

He shot off again, without having me block his path. I rolled my eyes.

"When are you going to learn?" I popped up in front of him again, and he looked truly agitated. "You're like a huge, nasty elephant and I'm a graceful gazelle. Stop trying to out run-fly me."

"Gazelle?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "More like pesky fly."

"Have you ever considered adopting a british accent? It'd make you sound less mean, more posh."

I raised a pinky playfully, but that just pissed him off more. I was done playing games now, I had a boring classroom I needed to get to. Strategy time. I needed to get him to drop the book, since that was the only thing he cared about right then. Then I'd fly into the school, turn human, stuff it into my backpack and be good to go. I mean, he would dare attack me there, as my human self, right?

Taking the more obvious, less strategic approach, I summoned the hottest orb of ectoplasm I could. Trying my hardest to look _anywhere _but his hand that was clutching the book (so to not give myself away), I fired and hoped I hit the mark.

He summoned a shield, and when it dissipated, he had the nerve to yawn. Yawn!

"You're not a challenge anymore, and I have better things to do than waste my time beating you up. It's been fun, but I simply must take my leave now."

He did a kind of 'shoo' gesture with his hand, and I snapped.

"_You _have better things to do! That's funny Vlad," I shot an ectoblast at him. "Because last time I checked," another ectoblast "I was the ghost fighting teenager," insert ectoblast here "who has to balance school and work and friends and evil," another ectoblast "middle aged men who are _constantly _trying to take over the world" do I even have to say it? Ectoblast. "and kill his dad and marry his mom!"

I was panting from the energy I had put out now. I wasn't even paying attention to where I was shooting, they were just surfacing with the anger I had been feeling. I mean, can you blame me? Vlad is like that _one _stubbed toe after a day of horrible events after another. Worse than that, he's like a week of stubbed toes after continuous horrible event. No, wait, worse than that. Like that last stubbed toe after a day of stubbing your toe every hour, added to the horrible events. For a year, with no healing time for that poor toe of yours. Yeah, that's Vlad in a nutshell.

"By the way," I added as I flew up to him. He looked dizzy, and he kept blinking as if trying to get rid of stars in his eyes. "You're quite persuasive. You can go ahead and leave now."

I delivered a final round house kick to his jaw, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed, turning into his human self half way. I was perfectly fine with letting him collide against the pavement. Maybe I over reacted a little back there, just a tad, but it saved me a whole bunch of time, okay?

I grabbed the singed and burned book off the floor, ran behind a bush and transformed, stuffed it into my backpack then ran into the school.

Time to find out why this stupid book was so importat to Vlad.

* * *

><p>I took my seat next to Sam in third period. The teacher glared at me for being fifteen minutes late, but otherwise continued with writing questions on the board.<p>

Sam glanced at me with a dissaproving look.

"What were you doing out there?" she asked in an angery whisper.

"You heard that?" I slammed my head against my desk in despair. So much for being subtle.

"Not just me, the entire school. Luckily, the teachers said to just ignore it and continue with our work."

"I'll explain later, then."

I plopped my backpack onto my desk and took out the book. Now that I could see it up close, I noticed how beautiful it was. It was a dirty brown color, obviously ancient. It had golden patterns on it, swirls and designs that trailed up the spine of the book and even into the inside cover. The gold was chipping and dirty like the rest of the book. On the cover, in barely eligable letters, it read "Anima Devorantem". I didn't know what language that was. The edges of the pages were black and chared. Maybe from my ectoblast, who knows. Weird thing was, the inside of it was fine. The crinkly yellow pages were blank and fragile, but otherwise write-able.

I found it weird that Vlad would want a blank book.

"Where's your pencil, Fenton? Are you writing all this down?"

I was forced to snap out of my musings by the teacher, unfortunatley. I grabbed a pen from my backpack and scribbled down what was on the board.

_**How did Odysseus defeat the cyclops? **_

What happened next made me nearly jump out of my seat. The book absorbed the ink from my pen. What happened next was even weirder. It spit the ink back at me. Not literally, of course. But new words had formed on the page.

_He came to me. I ordered him to intoxicate the monster. I told him to call himself Nohbdy. I told him to ride on the underside of the sheep. That is how Odysseus lived. _

I gulped down the lump that had formed in my throat. Maybe I was hallucinating from lack of sleep. Was the book talking to me?

I looked up at the board and scribbled down the next question.

_**What happened after he defeated the Cyclops?**_

_Polyphemus was the Sea God's son. A curse, you see, from the God of the Oceans himself. Ten years would he be cursed to wander and fight, ten years would he need me to come to his aid._

I put my pen down and rested my hand on the book for a second, but it suddenly felt like I was somewhere else. I couldn't breathe, I was drowning. I looked up, a mass of black and fire hovered over me. The water battled relentlessly against me, as if it were alive.

"The book, give me the book!"

I tried to swim towards the top, but the current wouldn't let me. I started feeling dizzy, black clouding my vision.

"The book, Achaemenides, give me the book!"

The voices above me were filtered, as if I were hearing them through thick glass. A boulder crashed into the sea, creating a huge wave. It didn't feel like I was in control of my body anymore. I couldn't move no matter how much I commanded my limbs to. The images and sounds got quieter, and farther as I sunk deeper into the watery abyss.

"We don't need the book, Odysseus! Get on the ship, we must leave! We cannot evade Polyphemus' attacks much longer!"

"Where is it? !"

I registered something float into my hands, hard and rectangular. Then I was back in the classroom. I coughed and sputtered, my lungs burning. It felt as if I had been actually drowning!

The class was all starring at me now, as I grasped the sides of my desk and breathed in the sweet oxygen.

"Choke on your spit, Fenton?"

An annoying voice I vaguely registered as Dash said. As expected, the glass howled in laughter, all except for Sam and anyone with a decent sense of humor.

Waiting until everyone had forgotten about my choking scene, I spared one last glance at the book and picked up my pen.

_**What are you?**_

_A book. _

I rolled my eyes. This thing was already giving me a headache, I'd never understand why Vlad insisted on keeping it.

_**Why can you talk?**_

_Because I am In Anima Devorantum._

I tapped my pencil against my desk as I tried to think of something that would actually force the damn book to answer a queston, without the whole vague-ness. I'm talking to a book. That's when you really know you're crazy, isn't it? When you talk to a book?

_**Why did Vlad want you?**_

_Because I know everything. Past, present, future. I am another brain, a better brain. A brain that does not stop working when it reaches its peak, a brain who constantly improves. _

The next words caused me to shutter, and I immediatley closed it and put it back in my backpack.

_Let me be your brain, Daniel Fenton._

* * *

><p><strong>I'm really sorry about any spellinggrammar errors! Spellcheck wouldn't work and I didn't have time to edit it myself. I don't know if I'll continue this or not, depends on whether people like it. I know I probably won't decide until 2-3 chapters are done though. For those of you waiting for an update to SIOR, give it a week or two, maybe if things go well i'll get it done by this weekend. Thanks for reading. :)**


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